We know that certain birds like parrots are skilled at imitating voices and sounds they hear around them. But even the colorful parrot can't hold a candle to the astonishing talent of the superb lyrebird, a ground-dwelling species native to Australia (Menura novaehollandiae). This amazing creature has been documented in faithfully reproducing a diverse number of sounds, ranging from other birdsongs, to koalas and dingos, to human-made sounds like chainsaws, car alarms, camera shutters, video games and even crying babies.

 

Check out the lyrebird in action in this excerpt below from The Life of Birds with David Attenborough:

 

According to Wikipedia, though both sexes are capable of imitating almost any sound they hear, it is the male lyrebird that is more skilled and persistent in showing off its vocal flair, as a way of impressing potential mates.

Not only can the lyrebird imitate songs of other birds convincingly, the repertoire of these imitated sounds are also passed down, says Oddity Central:

 

Once a lyrebird learns a call, it’s almost never forgotten. And the calls are passed on through generations. So a few lyrebirds in Victoria actually recreate sounds that are hardly heard by humans anymore – the sounds of axes and saws, and old-fashioned cameras that haven’t been used for years. “Because they’re the most successful birds and the most photographed birds, they’re imitating all the old sounds,” said Martyn Robinson, a naturalist at Australia Museum in Sydney.

 

The lyrebird's unsurpassed vocal skill is often attributed to the complex musculature of the vocal organ called the syrinx, which is more flexible compared to other songbirds -- to the point where it is capable of carrying more than one tune at a time, says Wikipedia.